when God vouchsafes to speak to us in our own Language we must understand his Words just as we do when they are spoke by men Indeed when I am sure that it is an inspired Writing I lay it down for a Principle that it contains nothing absurd and contradictious or repugnant to the received Principles of Natural Reason but this does not give me authority to Expound the Words of Scripture to any other sense than what they will naturally bear to reconcile them with such Notions as I call reason for if one man has this liberty another may take it and the Scripture will be tuned to every mans private Conceits and therefore in case the plain sense of Scripture contradicts those Notions I have of things if it be possible to be true I submit to the Authority of Scripture if it seems to include a Contradiction and Impossibility if that Contradiction be not plain and notorious and in such Matters as I am sure I perfectly understand there I submit again and conclude it is no Contradiction though I cannot comprehend how it is if I can by no means reconcile it I will confess I do not understand it and will not pretend to give any Sense of it much less to give such a Sense of it as the Words will not bear This shows that men may pretend to Expound Scripture according to Reason when the Dispute is nothing else but a Clash of Reason with Scripture as this Author phrases it for so it is when the usual signification of the Words and the Scope and Circumstances of the Place require one Sense and men force another Sense on it upon pretence of Expounding Scripture by Reason that is to reconcile Scripture to their pre-conceived Notions and Opinions of Things for what the Words signifie that is the Sense of Scripture and when they will not admit this Sense because they apprehend it contrary to Reason though most agreeable to the Words and Scope of the Place that is nothing else but a Controversie between Scripture and Reason My present Undertaking does not oblige me to examine all the Scriptures which are alleadged by the Socinians against the Doctrine of the Trinity or by others for it this is a voluminous Work and has often been done by others and if there were any just Occasion of doing it again it deserves a Treatise by it self but indeed it is the Doctrine it self which the Socinians dislike more then our Expositions which they cannot deny to be reasonable enough were the Doctrine so but they must not expound Scripture contrary to Reason and therefore must never allow that the Scripture teaches such a Doctrine which they think contradicts the plain and self-evident Reason of Mankind reconcile men to the Doctrine and the Scripture is plain without any farther Comment this I have now endeavoured and I believe our Adversaries will talk more sparingly of Absurdities and Contradictions for the future and then they will loose the best Argument they have against the Orthodox Expositions of Scripture but yet I am unwilling to dismiss this Argument without some few Observations about the Sense of Scripture This Author refers us to the History of the Vnitarians which though it be but a little Book in all Senses is too large to be particularly examined now but however I shall give some taste of it In the first Letter the Author marshals those Texts which he thinks overthrow the Doctrine of the Trinity and because this may be most dangerous to unskilful Readers I shall more particularly examine that He reduces the Scriptures under several Topicks or Heads of Arguments 1. If our Lord Christ were himself God there could be no Person greater than he none that might be called his Head or God none that could in any respect command him Now this Argument is fallacious for though Christ be God himself yet if there be Three Persons in the Godhead the equality and sameness of Nature does not destroy the Subordination of Persons a Son is equal to his Father by Nature but inferiour to him as his Son if the Father as I have explained it be Original Mind and Wisdom the Son a personal subsisting but reflex Image of his Fathers Wisdom though their Eternal Wisdom be equal and the same yet the Original is superior to the Image the Father to the Son and therefore though I know such Texts as he alleadges My Father is greater than I. The Head of Christ is God I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God are both by Ancient and Modern Expositors applied to Christ's Human Nature yet I see no Inconvenience in owning this to be true with respect to his Divine Person and his Relation to his Father For the Father is the Head and Fountain of the Deity and the Son is God of God and therefore the Father may be called his God As for Christ's receiving Commands from the Father though this relates to the Execution of his Mediatory Office and so concerns him as God Incarnate as by the Dispensation of the Gospel he is the Minister of God's Will and Pleasure yet I grant even as God he receives Commands from his Father but it is no otherwise than as he receives his Nature from him by Nature he is the Word the Wisdom the Command of the Father his reflex Image whereby he produces all the Designs of his own Wisdom and Counsel into act Thus St. Austin answered the Arrian Objection That Christ was but God's Instrument and made the World by God's Command Let them consider with what other words the Father commanded his only Word But they frame to themselves an Imagination of two near one another but separated by their distinct Places one commanding another obeying Nor do they understand that the Fathers Command it self that all things should be made is no other Word of the Father but that by which all things are made that is the substantial Word and Wisdom and Command of the Father his only begotten Son 2. If our Lord Christ were indeed God it could not without blasphemy be absolutely and without Restriction affirmed of him that he is the Creature the Possession the Servant and Subject of God It is well he added absolutely and without restriction but he had done better if he had remembred it in his Proofs that Christ is called a Creature he proves because he is the first-born of every Creature but here he should have remembred his absolutely and without restriction for he is so to the first-born of every Creature that he is the Image of the Invisible God and therefore no Creature so born before all Creatures as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also signifies That by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all
things which is the Explication of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 begotten before the whole Creation and therefore no part of the Creation himself and by him all things consist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things were not only made by him but have their Subsistence in him as the Apostle tells us in God we live and move and have our being that this does not relate to the new Creation as the Socinians would have it is very plain For 1. in this Sense Christ if he were meer Man was not the first-born of every new Creature for I hope there were a great many new Creatures that is truly good and pious men before Christ was born of his Virgin Mother 2. Nor in this sense were all things in Heaven and Earth visible and invisible Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers that is all the Orders of Angels created by him For the greatest part of visible things especially in the Apostles days when so little part of the World was converted to the Christian Faith were not new made by him and none of the invisible things were new made by him good Angels did not need it and he came not to convert fallen Angels but to destroy the visible Kingdom of the Devil in this World and to judge them in the next 3. Nor in this sense were all things made for him for he is a Mediator for God to reduce Mankind to their Obedience and Subjection to him and therefore when he has accomplished his Work of Mediation and destroyed all Enemies in the final Judgment of the World he shall deliver up his Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all of which more presently 4. And therefore the Apostle proceeds from his Creation of the Natural World to his Mediatory Kingdom which proves that he did not speak of that before And he is the Head of the Body the Church who is the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence as the Maker of all things visible and invisible he is said to be before all things begotten of his Father before the Creation of the World as Head of the Church he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also the beginning the first who rose from the dead that he might be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first upon all Accounts before the Worlds and the first-born from the dead That he was God's Minister and Servant he proves by several Texts as that he was appointed or made which has the same sense by God the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession but here is a restriction to his being High-Priest and therefore no danger of Blasphemy though he be God for we may observe that though the Jewish High-Priest were but a man yet he was a Type of a High-Priest who is more than man even the Eternal Son and Word of God as some of the Learned Jews acknowledge for the Son of God is the only proper Mediator and Advocate with the Father as Philo Iudoeus often calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or High-Priest and shows that the Garments of the High-Priest were Figures of Heaven and Earth which seems to signifie that the Eternal Word which made the world is the true High-Priest And the Story Iosephus tells of Alexander looks this way that when Iaddus the High-Priest went out to meet him dressed in all his Pontifical Attire he approached him with great Reverence and Veneration and his Captains wondering at it he told them That that God who appeared to him and sent him upon that Expedition and promised him Victory and Success appeared to him in that very Habit. I am sure the Apostle distinguishes Christ from High-Priests taken from among men and makes his Sonship the Foundation of his Priesthood Christ glorified not himself to be made an High-Priest which shows that it is no Servile Ministry but he that said unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten Thee As he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec And what the Mystery of this Melchizedecian Priesthood was he explains 7 Hebrews that Melchizedec was first by Interpretation King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem which is King of Peace Without Father without Mother without Descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like unto the Son of God which is a Priest continually As for his next Quotation that Christ is Gods I know not what he means by it for there is no doubt but Christ is God's Son God's Christ God's High-Priest serves the ends and designs of God's Glory and what then therefore he is not God By no means he may conclude that therefore he is not God the Father because he acts subordinately not that therefore he is not God the Son His next Proof is that God calls him his Servant by the Prophet Isaiah but it is his Servant in whom his Soul is well-pleased which is the peculiar Character of his Son and is that very testimony which God gave to Christ at his Baptism by a voice from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased His next Proof is that he humbled himself and became obedient which is all he cites but what does he prove from this that Obedience is part of his Humiliation And what then therefore he is not God because he voluntarily condescends below the Dignity of his Nature does he forfeit the Dignity of his Nature and yet this is the plain Case as the Apostle tells us in that place that He being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. And this is a wonderful Proof that he is not God because being in the form of God that is being God he voluntarily condescended to the meanest and most servile state of Human Nature for the Salvation of sinners But the sting of all is behind that for this submission and obedience he was rewarded and exalted by God and a God is not capable of a reward or exaltation being Supreme himself and yet as it follows for this God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name above every Name Now it seems very strange to me that Christ's advancement to the supreme Government of the World should be made an Argument against his being God or the Eternal Son of God for is it fitting and congruous for God to make a meer Creature the Universal Lord and Soveraign of the World to advance a meer man above the most glorious Angels to be the Head of all Principalities and Powers which would be an Indignity to the Angelical
Expiation of his Blood And though Christ be the Eternal Son of God and the Natural Lord and Heir of all things yet God hath in this highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at or in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth and that every tongue some of all Nations Languages and Tongues shall confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father For when God exalts and magnifies himself or exalts his Son it does not and cannot signifie any addition or increase of their essential Greatness and Glory for neither the Father nor the Son can be greater than they are but yet God is exalted when his Greatness and Power is more visible and more universally acknowledged and adored and thus God has highly exalted his Son too by conferring the Mediatory Power and Kingdom on him as to shew this particularly but briefly This makes the Son more universally known acknowledged and adored The Notion and Belief of one God is Natural to Mankind that there are three Divine Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost in the Unity of the Godhead is not known by Nature but by Revelation There are some obscure hints and intimations of this even in the History of the Creation more plain in the Types and Prophesies of the Jewish Law which relate to the Messias and possibly this was more particularly explained in their Cabala which some learned men industriously prove contained this Mystery of the Trinity but all this while this Mystery was very obscure and the Glory of the Son little known in the World for though now we certainly know from the Exposition of Christ and his Apostles that the Prophets spake of Christ under the name of Lord and God and Jehovah yet all went in the Name of God But when Christ appeared in the World then God owned him for his Son this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Christ owned himself for the Son of God his only begotten Son and upon all occasions calls God his Father and that in such a distinguishing manner that the Jews understood him to mean that he was the Son of God by Nature and charge him with Blasphemy for making himself God He appealed to those mighty Works he did in his Father's Name to prove the Truth of what he taught them that he was indeed the Son of God But then God visibly owned him for his Son when he raised him from the dead and bestowed a Kingdom on him a Name which is above every Name as St. Paul tells us That he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead And for this reason that of the Psalmist Thou art my Son this day have I begotten Thee is applied to the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead We deliver unto you glad tydings how that the promise that was made to the Fathers God hath fulfilled the same to us their Children in that he hath raised up Iesus again as it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten Thee Which it is plain does not signifie that God then first begot him for he owned him for his beloved Son long before at his Baptism and Christ calls himself his only begotten Son long before and the Socinians themselves attribute his Sonship to his miraculous Conception in the Womb of the Virgin and St. Paul we see expounds God's begetting him at his Resurrection by his being declared the Son of God by the Resurrection from the Dead which supposes he was his Son before and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Flesh for so he was the Seed of David but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Spirit of Holiness or his Divine Nature for so its opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proves it must signifie He was the only begotten Son of God from eternal Ages but the World did not fully know him to be so till God declared this by his Resurrection from the Dead and by bestowing a Kingdom on him and then he visibly appeared in the Glory and Majesty of the Son of God as if he had been begotten by him that day and this seems to be the meaning of our Saviour's Prayer And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with that glory which I had with Thee before the World was that is now publickly own me to be thy Son which I always was but was never yet sufficiently declared so to the World And therefore when he was raised from the Dead and advanced into his Kingdom which he was to administer not by Human Force and Power but by the Power of the Divine Spirit it was time to let the World know this great Mystery of a Trinity in Unity because each Divine Person has his distinct and proper part in this mysterious oeconomy and therefore he commands his Disciples to Baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost that is into the belief and worship of One God Father Son and Holy Ghost of which more presently But this is not all the Son is not only now made known and manifest to the World and publickly owned by his Father but he has a peculiar Authority invested in him distinct both from the Father and the Holy Spirit as he is a Mediatory King There being but One Supreme and Soveraign God Father Son and Holy Ghost who are but One Energy and Power but One Monarchy but One Maker and One Lord of the World in the Natural Government of the World there is no distinction of the Divine Persons no peculiar Offices and Administrations to distinguish them not one thing done by the Father another by the Son and a third by the Holy Ghost but the whole Trinity made and governs the World by One individual Operation and therefore the Creation and Government of the World is the Work of One God and therefore peculiarly attributed to the Father who is the Fountain of the Deity who is that Original Mind and Wisdom who made and who governs the World by his Son and holy Spirit so that in the Natural Government of the World the Son has no Kingdom of his own but reigns as One Supreme God with the Father and the Holy Spirit and all attributed to the Father as the beginning of Energy and Power But in the oeconomy of man's Salvation the Son has a Kingdom of his own which is peculiarly his administred in his Name and by his Soveraign Authority The Father is atoned by him and has committed to him all Power both in Heaven and in Earth He is made the Head of all Principalities and Powers which are now immediately subjected to him and must receive their Commands and
imagine how any Substance should be without a beginning how it should be present in all places without Parts and without Extension how Substance Essence Existence and all Divine Attributes and Powers which are distinct things in created Spirits should be all the same one simple Act in God and yet Reason tells us we must allow of no Composition no Qualities or Accidents in the Divine Nature for a compounded Being must have Parts and must be made for that which has Parts must have some Maker to join the Parts together and to endow it with such Qualities and Powers But now if we consider God as Wisdom and Truth which is his true Nature and Essence without confounding our Minds with some material conceptions of his Substance these things are plain and easie For it is demonstrable that Truth is eternal had no beginning no Maker for when we speak of original and essential Truth and Wisdom what was not always Truth and Wisdom could never begin to be so And if Truth be the only real thing and necessarily eternal there is an eternal Mind which is nothing else but eternal Truth for he who can imagine Truth and Wisdom to be eternal without an eternal Mind ought not to pretend to either unless he can tell us how Truth can subsist without a Mind Thus it is demonstrable that Truth and Wisdom has no Parts no Extension no more than Thought has Truth and Wisdom is confined to no place fills no space but is every-where the same without Extension and Parts and therefore has a necessary and essential Omnipresence There is a faint resemblance of this in finite and created Spirits even humane Wisdom and Reason Thoughts and Passions have no Extension nor Parts which is a good argument that a created Spirit has no Extension nor Parts neither for nothing which has Extension and Parts can be the subject of that which has none All the Qualities of Bodies are extended as Bodies are for the Properties and Qualities of all Things must conform to the Nature of the Subject in which they are and therefore Faculties Powers and Operations which have no Extension or Parts as the Will the Understanding the Memory the Thoughts and Passions have none must be seated in a Subject which has no Parts nor Extension neither Thus Thought is confined to no place but in a Minute surrounds the Earth and ascends above the Heavens and visits all the empty Capacities of infinite space which is an imperfect imitation of the Omnipresence of an Infinite Mind Thus what can be a more pure and simple Act than Wisdom and Truth Now though we conceive the Divine Attributes and Perfections under different Notions and Characters such as Wisdom Love Justice Goodness Power they are indeed nothing else but Infinite Truth and Wisdom which receives several Characters and Denominations from its different effects as the same Sea or River does different Names from the Countries by which it passes For what is intellectual Love but the perfect Idea's of Truth or the true knowledge and estimation of Things What is Justice and Goodness but an equal distribution of Things or a true and wise proportion of Rewards and Punishments What is perfect Power but perfect Truth and Wisdom which can do whatever it knows This last will not be so easily understood because in Men we find Knowledge and Power to be very different things that Men may know a great deal which they cannot do And yet if we consider this matter over again we shall find it a mistake For even among Men it is only Knowledge that is Power Humane Power and humane Knowledge as that signifies a Knowledge how to do any thing are commensurate whatever humane Skill extends to humane Power can effect nay every Man can do what he knows how to do if he have proper Instruments and Materials to do it with but what no humane Power can do no humane Knowledge knows how to do We know not what the Substance or Essence of any thing is nor can we make any Substance we cannot create any thing of nothing nor do we know how it is to be done which shews that Knowledge and Power in Creatures are equal and that proves a very near relation between them especially when we add that Knowledge is not only the Director of Power but is that very Power which we call Force For it is nothing but Thought which moves our Bodies and all the Members of them which are the immediate Instruments of all humane Force and Power excepting Mechanical Motions which do not depend upon our Wills such as the motion of the Heart the circulation of the Blood the concoction of our Meat and the like all voluntary motions are not only directed but caused by Thought and so indeed it must be or there could be no motion in the World for Matter cannot move it self and therefore some Mind must be the first Mover which makes it very plain that infinite Truth and Wisdom is Infinite and Almighty Power So that if we set aside all material Images of Essence and Substance and contemplate God as Eternal Truth and Wisdom the Notion of a God is very plain and easie as far as we are concerned to know him in this state The same cause has confounded and perplext the Notion of a Trinity in Unity and given occasion to some vain and arrogant Pretenders to Reason profanely to deride and ridicule that most Sacred and Venerable Mystery They puzzle and confound themselves with some gross and corporeal Idea's of Essence and Substance and how Three Divine Persons can subsist distinct in the same numerical Substance but would they but consider the Three Divine Persons as Three Infinite Minds distinguished from each other by a self-consciousness of their own and essentially united by a mutual consciousness to each other which is the only way of distinguishing and uniting Minds and Spirits and then a Trinity in Unity is a very plain and intelligible Notion Now certainly this is much the most reasonable way For what the Essence and Substance of a Spirit is when we distinguish it from Understanding and Will which we call the Powers and Faculties of a Spirit for my part I know not no more than I do what the naked Essence and Substance of Matter is stript of all its Qualities and Accidents as I observed before the naked Essences of Things are not the Objects of our Knowledge and therefore it is ridiculous to dispute about them to say peremptorily what is or what is not in matters which we know nothing of And therefore as we frame the Notion of Bodies from their external and sensible Qualities so we must frame the Notion of a Spirit from its intellectual Powers of Will and Understanding c. and when we dispute about the distinction or union of Spirits we must not dispute how their Substances which we know nothing of can be distinguisht or united but how two Minds considered as intellectual
Orders from him as the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us when God bringeth in the first begotten into the World that is when God raised him from the dead and received him into Heaven to sit at his right hand he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him obey his Commands and be his Ministers and Servants The Holy Spirit is given by him he sends the Spirit to dwell in his Church which is his Body and to animate all the true and sincere Members of it He governs this lower World disposes of Kingdoms and Empires in subserviency to the ends of his Spiritual Kingdom He has the Power of pardoning sins of judging the World of raising the dead whom he pardons God pardons whom he condemns God condemns for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son Should the Father judge the World he must judge as the Maker and Soveraign Lord of the World by the strict Rules of Righteousness and Justice and then how could any sinner be saved but he has committed Judgment to the Son as a Mediatory King who judges by the Equity and Chancery of the Gospel The Power indeed whereby he administers his Kingdom is the Power of the whole Trinity of Father Son and Holy Ghost for they being essentially One God have but one Energy and Power and therefore can never act separately and therefore the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead is ascribed to God the Father God raised him from the dead to Christ himself as he tells the Jews Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up And I lay down my life that I may take it again I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again And to the Holy Spirit If the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in you Where God indeed is said to raise up Christ from the dead but it was by his Spirit and by the same Spirit he will raise us But yet this is the Kingdom of Christ because now the Administration and Exercise of this Power is committed to him and is as it were under his direction and influence The Natural Kingdom and Government of the World is peculiarly attributed to God the Father though the Son and Holy Ghost reign with him as one God because the Father is Original Mind and Wisdom and therefore the beginning of all Power and Energy As the Father begets the Son not the Son the Father and the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son not Father and Son from the Holy Ghost so the Son and Holy Ghost will and act with the Father not the Father with the Son and the Holy Ghost that is if we may so speak where there is but One individual Act and Energy the Father is the first Mover in the Sacred Trinity For reflex Wisdom that is the Son who is begotten Wisdom moves and acts at it is begotten by Original Mind and Wisdom who is the eternal Father as Christ himself tells us The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do for whatsoever things he doth these also doth the Son likewise And my Father worketh hitherto and I work But the Father is the Principle and Beginning of Action and therefore the Government and Monarchy must receive its Denomination from him that it is the Kingdom of the Father But now in the Mediatory Kingdom the exercise of the Divine Power is committed into the hands of the Mediator and is administred by the measures and terms of his Mediation The Power is not taken out of God's hands for that is impossible Father Son and Holy Ghost govern the World still by One individual Act and Power but as in the Natural Government of the World the Exercise of this Power begins with the Father so in this Mediatory Kingdom it begins with the Son and is directed by his Mediation that is God governs the World now not meerly as a Natural Lord by the Rules of Natural Justice but with respect to the Mediatory Power and Authority of his Son and to serve the ends of his Mediatory Kingdom Now the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Iudgment to the Son He hath power to save and to destroy whom he pardons God pardons whom he condemns God condemns all Petitions are put up to God in his Name all Blessings both temporal and spiritual are obtained from God in his Name that is it is the Name and Authority of Christ by which God now governs the World This is the Name God has given him which is above every Name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow both of things in Heaven and things on Earth and things under the Earth and that every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father That Angels in Heaven move at his Command and obey his Power that Men on Earth worship God and expect all from him in his Name that evil Spirits tremble at his Name and yield to his Power and that all the World confess the Supreme and Soveraign Authority of the Son to the Glory of the Father who hath thus highly exalted him There can be no other meaning but this in what Christ tells his Disciples after his Resurrection from the Dead All Power is given unto me both in Heaven and Earth For unless it be some Power which he had not before as the Eternal Son of God how can it be said to be now given unto him and yet before in conjunction with and subordination to his Father he had all Power both in Heaven and Earth but then this Power was not in his own Name nor seated immediately in himself as his own Personal Authority but now the Son is immediately invested with this Power and Authority as a Mediatory King And this is the meaning of what he tells us As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself To have life in himself is to have the Power and Authority of bestowing Life as appears both from what goes before and from what follows As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them so the Son quickneth whom he will Verily verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they-that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation This Power the Son always had as begotten of his Father from all Eternity and One God with him but he here speaks of a
to God as our Historian will have it by a communication of power over Diseases Devils the Grave the Winds the Seas c. which dwindles the form of God into just nothing for according to them he had no inherent Power to do this but God did it at his word as he did for other Prophets and therefore this is no form no likeness of God at all for he did not work Miracles as God does by an inherent Power but God wrought Miracles for him yet suppose this how is it an Argument of his humility that he committed not robbery by equalling himself to God as he renders the words which our Translators render and which the ancient Fathers expound to the same sense he thought it not robbery to be equal to God that is says he did not rob God of his honour by arrogating to himself to be God or equal to God though if this were robbery both Christ and his Apostles were guilty of it for Christ declared I and my Father are One which the Jews understood and they did not mistake him in it was to make himself God and the Apostles do this frequently in express terms as I have already shown but to allow his Interpretation I only ask whether Christ if he would could have committed this Robbery whether upon their supposition of his being a meer Man if he had arrogated to himself to be God God would have permitted this and suffered him to have wrought Miracles to cheat the world into this belief if he could not it is ridiculous to talk of his humility in not doing it and I am sure it is ridiculous upon their Hypothesis to say that he could But he took upon him the form of a Servant i. e. became like a Servant possessing nothing of his own and suffering injuries and reproaches c. But how did he take this form upon him which must signifie his own free and voluntary choice when he did not take it but was made so This was the Condition which he did not choose but was made for and what humility was this for a meer Man to be a Minister and Servant of God and so great a Minister as to be in the form of God as he says to be glorious for Miracles and admired as the great power of God especially when he was to be exalted into Heaven for it and advanced above all Principalites and Powers This is such Humility as would have been Pride and Ambition in the most glorious Angel But he was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man humbled himself c. that is says this Historian being made like other men in the common similitude of man and I pray how should a man be made but like a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death i. e. notwithstanding that he could have delivered himself from them yet was he obedient even to evil Magistrates and without resistance under-went that death which their wickedness and malice prepared for him or rather which God had decred for him which his hand and counsel determined before to be done and therefore which he could not which he ought not to avoid The plain Case is this All the Circumstances of our Saviour's Birth and Life and Death were so punctually foretold by the Prophets and so peremtorily decreed by God that after he was come into the world there was no place for his choice and election he could not shew either his love or his humility in choosing Poverty or Death and therefore if it were matter of his free choice and a demonstration of his great Humility and Love as the Apostles says it was he chose it before he came into the world He was in the form of God equal to God rich before and chose to become Man a Minister a Servant and to submit to a mean Life and an infamous Death for our sakes and this indeed was a mighty Love and stupendious Humility in the Son of God This we can all understand it is a venerable Mystery and a powerful Argument of our Religion but Socinianism makes Nonsense of it The Faith and Worship of Christ is the distinguishing Character of the Christian Religion and if Christ be no more than a Man as the Socinians teach it is a direct Contradiction both to Natural and to the Mosaical Religion which condemn the worship of any Creature and all Religious Trust and Affiance in them It is a Religion without a Priest and without a Sacrifice or which is much the same retains the Name of a Priest and a Sacrifice without any proper Atonement or Expiation which is a very unfit Religion for sinners But that which is most to my present purpose is that it makes a God of a meer Creature and makes a Mediator and King without any inherent Power to save Sinners to protect his Church to govern or to judge the World which is a meer Pageant and Shadow of a King To make a Mediator or Mediatory King who shall be a fit Object of Religious Hope and Trust and Worship as I have already explained it at large he must have a Personal Knowledge of all our particular Wants and an Inherent Power to help us and though his Humane Nature is confined to Heaven his Knowledge and Power must extend to all the world as he himself tells us after his Resurrection All Power is given unto me both in Heaven and in Earth particularly he must have Power to protect his Church on Earth from all her Enemies to restrain and govern the malice of Men and Devils to forgive sins to give the fresh Supplies of Grace to raise the Dead to judge the World to condemn bad men to Hell and to bestow Heaven upon his sincere Disciples Let us then consider what account our Socinian Historian gives of this matter and what a kind of Mediator and King he makes of Christ. Sometimes to abuse the World he tells us the Socinians generally not only grant but earnestly contend that Christ is to be worshipped and prayed to because God hath they say by his inhabiting Word or Power given to the Lord Christ a faculty of knowing all things and an ability to relieve all our wants Now if they mean honestly that Christ has an inherent Personal Knowledge and Power whereby he knows and can do all things this is to ascribe true Divine Perfections to him for such are infinite Knowledge and infinite Power and that is to make him a true and real God and I think there is not greater Nonsense in the World than a Made-God than a Creature-God as I showed before But it is plain our Historian is none of these Socinians for all his Expositions lean another way and in the same place he disputes earnestly against praying to Christ and says that those Gentlemen he must mean the Socinian Gentlemen who are for praying to Christ especially the Polonian Zealots say that Christ's Mediation
spoken of Christ yet the Authority of Christ and his Apostles who have made this Application is as good a Reason to believe that they were meant of Christ as to believe any other part of the Gospel Let us then consider how he answers such Texts What the Psalmist says Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed Thee with the Oyl of Gladness above thy Fellows the Apostle to the Hebrews applies to Christ But unto the Son he saith thy Throne O God c. To this he Answers In the Hebrew and in the Greek 't is God is thy Throne i. e. thy seat resting place establishment for ever If he had only said it may be so he had said right but it is false to say it is so For the Hebrew Elohim may be either the Nominative or the Vocative Case and so the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an Attick Vocative and so is used by the Septuagint 22 Psalm 1. ' O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And it is evident the Septuagint the Vulgar Latine the Chaldee Paraphrase the Syriack and Arabick Versions took it for the Vocative Case and thus the Christian Church has always understood it and this is the most natural Construction when it immediately follows a Pronoun which has no other immediate Relative Thy Throne O God that is O God thy Throne is for ever and ever And thus the Apostle must understand it To the Son he saith Thy Throne O God where O God must be referred to the Son and thy to God and the sense he gives of it is absurd and what we have no Example of in Scripture that God is a Throne God indeed is called a Rock a Fortress a high Tower which is expounded by a Deliverer but a Throne here signifies a Kingdom as is evident from the following words and to say that God is the Throne and the Kingdom of Christ is to Subject the Father to the Son for a King sits upon his Throne and governs his Kingdom The Apostle in the next Verse cites another glorious Testimony which God hath given to his Son And Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the work of thine hands they shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a Garment and as a Vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail This is so plain a Testimony to the Divinity of our Saviour if these words be allowed to be applied by the Apostle to Christ that our Author is forced to deny it He says The Context has this sense And thou Lord that is and in another Text of the Psalms it is said Thou Lord which is certainly true if he had added but One word more viz. to the Son And in another Text of the Psalms it is said to the Son And thou Lord hast laid the Foundations of the Earth for so the Context requires us to supply it if we will make sense of it for the Apostle observes in what different Language God speaks of the Angels and to the Son Of the Angels he saith who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire but to the Son he saith thy Throne O God is for ever and ever And to the Son he saith Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundations of the Earth But to which of the Angels said he at any time Sit on my right hand until I make thine Enemies thy Footstool This is easie and natural but to apply those words to the Father Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundations of the Earth c. is to break the whole Context is contrary to the Apostles design and no good sense can be made of it and this I think is to ridicule Scripture to make it Nonsense or very bad disturbed and incoherent sense when there is no need of it but to serve an Hypothesis which the Text was designed to confute He says Tho. Aquinas rightly acknowledged that the words of both these Texts may be understood of God only not of Christ but this is false as indeed he seldom cites any Author but he corrupts him for Thomas says this Text may be understood of either but if you understand it of the Father then by in the beginning you must understand the Son who he says is called the beginning Thou Lord in the beginning that is in or by the Son hast laid the Foundations of the Earth for he saw the Context required that these words should be applied to Christ but he thought it indifferent whether they were applied to him in whole or in part since both ways he is made the Creator of the World which answers the Apostles design and though I think Thomas was mistaken yet this makes nothing to our Authors purpose Thus what the Psalmist says of God Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received Gifts for Men St. Paul attributes to Christ. Here our Historian spends a great many words to no purpose about Christ's discent into the Grave and into Hell and his ascending into Heaven to fill all things or as he says it might be better rendred to fulfil all things that is all the Prophesies of himself and others concerning his Death and Ascension into the highest Heavens But how does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie all Prophesies or how does his Ascension into Heaven fulfil all Prophesies As for the Gifts given to men he says in the Psalms they are literally meant of God and of Christ only by way of Prophesie or rather of Emblem or Accommodation which he learnedly proves because the Gifts the Apostle speaks of were not given or received till about One thousand years after David 's time Now what of all this we readily grant that ascending on high the leading captivity captive the receiving gifts for men which the Psalmist speaks of were not the same with the Ascension of Christ into Heaven his leading captivity captive and giving Gifts to men but were Types and Figures of it but the single Question is Whether Christ be that God of whom the Psalmist says that he ascended on high c. if he be not St. Paul has abus'd us for he applies that to Christ which was not said of him if he be we have what we desire that Christ is God but this which was the only Question he says not one word to Men may be Types and Figures as David and others were of Christ and in this case what was said of David as a Typical Person may be applied to the Person of Christ but God himself can be no Type for the Type is always less perfect than the
Antitype and therefore whatever is said of God must belong to his Person and cannot belong to any other What God did under the typical State of the Law may be a Type and Figure of those more glorious things which we would do in Human Nature and thus his Triumphs and Victories over the Enemies of his Church which is by a Metaphor called his ascending on high since God who fills all places neither locally ascends nor descends was a Type and Figure of his real Ascension into Heaven after he had first descended into the lowermost parts of the Earth as the Apostle argues but if what the Psalmist says that God ascended on high c. received its accomplishment in the Ascension of Christ into Heaven Christ must be the God of whom the Psalmist speaks Thus what the Psalmist says of God Worship him all ye Gods or Angels the Apostle Attributes to Christ when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him To this our Author answers 'T is uncertain whether St. Paul had any respect to the words in the Psalm What when he cites the very words as a Prophesie of Christ How shall we then know when the Apostle has respect to the words he quotes But if he had he doth not quote the words of the Psalmist as if they were spoken of Christ but only declareth the Decree of God known to him by the Spirit for subjecting the Angels to Christ in the same words that the Psalmist had used upon another occasion But he proves this Decree of God by no other Revelation but the words of the Psalmist nor pretends any other and if that do'nt prove it we have no other But his Reason for this is admirable because they are words most proper to express that Decree for the Writers of the New Testament generally affect to speak in Scripture language which is an effectual Answer to all the Texts of Scripture quoted out of the Old Testament that the Apostles did not intend to prove any thing by them but only affected to speak in Scripture language but when the Apostle says this was spoken of Christ if it were not spoken of him I doubt he affected something worse than speaking in Scripture Language this is either to ridicule Scripture or give the lie to it let him choose which he likes best St. Paul applies that of the Prophet Isaiah I have sworn by my self which all acknowledge to be spoken by God unto me every knee shall bow to Christ. This our Historian says is Because Christ then and there at the last Iudgment holdeth the place of God representeth him and acteth by his Commission So men are said to appear before our Soveraign Lord the King when they appear at the Bar of his Iudges because the Iudges act in the King's stead and by his Commission But why does he confine this bowing the Knee to the last Iudgment St. Paul indeed gives this as one Instance of it but does not confine it to this but in the Epistle to the Philippians makes it as large as the Exaltation of our Saviour Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow and that every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father This is what God says by the Prophet Every Tongue shall swear to me and St. Paul to the Romans Every Tongue shall confess to God And this shows that it is the Person of Christ to whom we must bow the knee it is the Name of Iesus at which every knee must bow and every Tongue must confess that Iesus Christ is the Lord. Now I suppose he will not say That we must confess the Judges to be the King or that we must bow to their Persons but to their Commission or that they represent the King wherever they are but only in the King 's Court. If then we must bow to the Person of Christ and confess him to be the Lord and this be an accomplishment of God's Oath unto me every Knee shall bow and every Tongue shall swear then Christ is that God who in the Prophet Isaiah swore that every Knee should bow to him And the Prophet plainly describes who this God is to whom every Knee shall bow Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength even to him shall men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed in the Lord shall the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory And I suppose all Christians know who that Lord is who is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption by whom we are justified through Faith in his Blood And this is that God to whom every Knee must bow But he is a little mistaken also in his Law we are not said to appear before our Soveraign Lord the King because we appear before the Judges who act by the King's Commission for this is true only of the Court of King's Bench which is peculiarly the King's Court though other Judges act by the King's Commission also in the Kings Court we are said to appear before the King But now though Christ receive his Kingdom and Power from God and God is said to judge the World by him yet it is properly Christ's Iudgment Seat So St. Paul here calls it We shall all stand before the Iudgment-Seat of Christ and we must all appear before the Iudgment-Seat of Christ for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Iudgment to the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father which I explained before And therefore this being Christ's Court of which he is the Supream and Soveraign Judge to him we must bow our Knee that is he is that Lord of whom the Prophet Isaiah speaks The same Prophet tells us Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And he shall be for a Sanctuary but for a Stone of stumbling and for a Rock of Offence to both the Houses of Israel for a gin and for a snare to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem This is evidently spoken of the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel And this St. Paul applies to Christ that the Jews did stumble and fall and were broken as the Prophet foretold at this stumbling Stone Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith the Faith of Christ but as it were by the Works of the Law for they stumbled at the stumbling-stone as it is written Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Where the Apostle joyns two Prophesies together the first that which I have already quoted
this Word of whom all these things are said be a Divine Person or only the communicable attribute of Wisdom and Power in God and this after what I have said I leave to any man of common understanding to determine But what becomes of his beloved Socinus all this while when the very Master-piece of his Wit and Invention is rejected by his own Disciples for if this Socinian be in the right his Master was greatly in the wrong By the Word he understands a Person but One who is the Word not by Nature but Office by the beginning he understands the beginning of Iohn the Baptist's Preaching in this beginning the Word was that is Christ was in being was in the world when Iohn the Baptist began to preach a great discovery But he was with God known to God only at that time which is very hardly true and was God by Dignity and Office not by Nature All things were made by him not created the world was not made by him but all things are new made by him that is all who believe in him are made new Creatures and after a great many great things said of this Word at last the Evangelist discovers this great Mystery the Word was made Flesh that is the Word was a Man If this be not ridiculing Scripture nothing is I am sure it represents the Evangelist very ridiculously to tell the World that Christ who was half a year younger than Iohn was in the world when Iohn began to preach but how great a Person he was and what his Office was was then known only to God Which if it were true is no great Mystery and to say this in such a mysterious pomp of words as there is nothing like it in all the Scripture is such a vain affectation as no School master but an arrant Fop would endure in a School-boy I shall not go about industriously to confute that which they themselves begin to be ashamed of but shall only lay down one rule of expounding Scripture and all other Writings which is a very reasonable one and will easily answer all the Art and Fallacy which is used in this Cause and that is this to expound all words and phrases to a proper and literal sense and to the utmost extent of their signification where the Circumstances of the place do not require a figurative and limited sense if we do not allow this there is no certain rule of expounding but men may interpret according to their own Fancies and Imaginations to any sense that the word was ever used in and then we may make any thing of any thing even a good Catholick of Socinus himself Now according to this Rule in the beginning must signifie the first beginning of all things for that is beginning in its utmost Latitude and that is the proper signification of beginning when there is nothing to limit it and there is nothing here Was the Word must signifie the Word did subsist and therefore is a Person God must signifie God by Nature which is the first and proper signification of the Word not a Metaphorical God by Dignity and Office for there is nothing to incline it to that sense All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made must signifie the first Creation of all things when God made the world by his word for that is the proper Notion of making all things to give being to them and as there is nothing in the Text to require any other sense so its relation to in the beginning when God made all things by his word determines it to this sense This is all true and certain if it be a good Rule to expound words in a proper sense when there is nothing that requires an improper and metaphorical sense And then it is nothing to the purpose to show that in the beginning sometimes signifies the beginning of the Gospel that God sometimes signifies a metaphorical God that making all things sometimes signifies new making all things for all this I allow when the Circumstances of the place require it when there is any thing added to determine these words to this sense but will never allow it where there is not and therefore cannot allow it here and if we must expound these words properly in this place there is an end of this Controversie But I must hasten to a Conclusion and therefore this shall serve at present as a Specimen how these men pervert Scripture and impose forced and ridiculous senses on it and by the help of what I have now discoursed it will be easie to detect all their other Fallacies and rescue the Scriptures from their perverse Comments as I shall be ready at any time to shew when I find a just occasion for it Secondly Socinianism as reasonable and accountable a Doctrine as our Historian says it is makes the Jewish oeconomy very unreasonable and unaccountable The Jewish Worship was External and Ritual but very pompous and mysterious and had there not been something very Divine and Mysterious praefigured by it it had been no better than a Childish piece of Pageantry unworthy of the Wisdom of God unworthy of the Nature of Man But the New Testament assures us that all these mysterious Ceremonies were Types of Christ and were accomplished in him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge or in whom are all the hidden Treasures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of wisdom and knowledge that is all those Treasures of wisdom and knowledge which were formerly hid and concealed under the Types of the Jewish Law for they were but a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ. And yet if Christ were no more than a meer Man the Antitype falls very short of the Types I shall instance at present only in the Temple and its Worship and Ministers The Tabernacle and Temple was God's House where he chose to dwell by the visible Symbols of his Presence and was so contrived as to be a Figure both of Heaven and Earth for so the Apostle to the Hebrews expresly tells us that the Holy of Holies was a Figure of Heaven into which the High Priest only entred and that but once a year to make Expiation and therefore the other Courts of the Temple which were for their daily worship did represent the Earth on which men worship God for God being the Maker and Soveraign Lord of the world who has Heaven for his Throne and Earth for his Footstool it was fitting the House where he dwelt should be an Emblem and Figure of the whole world But we must all confess that this was a very unaccountable and insignificant Ceremony for God who fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence to dwell in a House made with hands to appoint this the peculiar place of his worship ordinarily to accept no Sacrifices but what were offered there c. Had it not praefigured something more Divine and Mysterious
Solomon in his Prayer of Dedication might well say But will God indeed dwell on the Earth Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Thee how much less this House that I have built The Temple then was a Figure and we must enquire what it was a Figure of Now a typical Presence can be a Figure of nothing but a real Presence and God's Personal dwelling among Men for Presence and Habitation can signifie nothing but Presence and a Figure must be a Figure of something that is real and nothing can answer to a figurative visible Presence of God but a personal visible Presence Now our Saviour calls his Body the Temple Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up which St. Iohn tells us He spake of the Temple of his Body The Temple then which was God's House where he dwelt was but a Figure of Christ's Body Christ's Body then was that in truth and reality which the Temple was but a Figure of that is God's visible Presence on Earth But God was not visibly present on Earth unless he were personally united to Human Nature that the Body of Christ was the Body of God or of the Divine Word by as true and real an Union as any man's Body is his Thus God may be personally and visibly present among men as a man though his Soul be as invisible as the Deity is yet visibly present by his Union to a visible Body But if Christ be not God incarnate if the Divine Word be not personally united to Human Nature the Body of Christ is but as figurative a Temple as the Temple at Ierusalem was and then one Figure is made a Type of another which is as great an Absurdity in Types as a Metaphor of a Metaphor is in Speech God was as really present in the Temple as he was in Christ without a personal Union for God fills all places and is really present every where but yet was peculiarly present in the Temple to peculiar ends and purposes to hear Prayers to accept their Sacrifices and Oblations to give forth his Oracles and Responses and if Christ be but a meer Man he dwells no otherwise in him but by Inspiration and though Christ was more perfectly inspired than the Jewish Oracle this does not alter the Nature of God's Presence does not make one a typical and figurative the other a real Presence for God is really present in both but not personally united to either The typical Presence of God in the Tabernacle and Temple is not opposed to a real Presence by real and sensible Effects but to a visible Presence God is present every where but he is invisibly present but as he had chosen Israel for his peculiar People and Inheritance so he would dwell visibly among them but this could be done no other way but either by taking a visible Body or by some instituted signs of his visible Presence the first he would not do yet but intended to do in the fulness of time which his own infinite wisdom had appointed for it and in the mean time did praefigure this visible appearance of God on Earth in Human Nature by some visible Symbols of his Presence by a visible House wherein he dwelt by a visible Throne or Mercy-Seat and by placing a visible Oracle among them So that the Temple as a Type was a Type and Figure of God's visible Appearance and dwelling upon Earth and therefore if it was a Type of Christ's Body as Christ himself tells us it was God did visibly dwell in Christ by a Personal Union for nothing else can make God visible but a Personal Union to a visible Nature To this St. Iohn plainly alludes when he tells us The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tabernacled among us fulfilled that Type of God's dwelling in the Tabernacle and Temple at Ierusalem by his dwelling personally in Human Nature and we beheld his Glory that is says our Historian the glory of the man on whom the Word did abide and inhabit in him But St. Iohn says it is the glory of the Word made Flesh the glory of the Word as of the only begotten of the Father did shine in Human Nature there were visible signs of the Glory of the Incarnate Word This glory he says was beheld in his Miracles and in his Transfiguration and on many other occasions very many indeed in his Life and Doctrine especially for how would they have the glory of the Incarnate Word seen but by the visible Operations of it in Human Nature How does a Human Soul discover its glory but by visible Actions Thus our Saviour tells us that he is greater than the Temple I say unto you in this place is one greater than the Temple Now the Temple was God's House and figurative Presence and if he were greater than the Temple God dwelt in a more perfect manner in him that is he was not a symbolical visible Presence of God which was all he could be had he been no more than a man but a visible God even the Lord of the Temple as the Prophet Malachi assures us Behold I will send my Messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come into his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts This Messenger all men own was Iohn the Baptist The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight Now our Historian confesses he prepared the way for Christ and God says he shall prepare the way before Me which proves that Christ is this Lord of Hosts for whom Iohn was to prepare the way but that I at present intend is that he for whom Iohn was to prepare the way is the Lord of the Temple for it is called his Temple Now we know the Lord Jehovah was the Lord of the Temple for the Temple was God's House dedicated to his Name and Worship he dwelt in his Temple before by Types and Figures but now he was to come visibly and personally into his Temple and therefore he might well say he was greater than the Temple since he was the Lord of it that Incarnate God of whom God's dwelling in the Temple was a Figure and which had been a very empty and insignificant Figure unworthy of the Wisdom and Majesty of God had it not praefigured the mysterious Incarnation of the Son of God Thus as God had a Typical House so he had a typical High Priest and typical Sacrifices That the High Priest who once a year entred into the typical Holy of Holies was a Type of Christ who entred into Heaven The Apostle teaches us 9 Hebr. that the Jewish Sacrifices were typical of
and Intercession for us is not to be understood of a Verbal or Personal Mediation proceeding from a particular Knowledge of our Wants and Prayers and thus we have already lost this Faculty in Christ of knowing all things but he Mediates by his Merits that is not by his Expiation and Sacrifice but by the perfect Obedience and most acceptable Services that he has performed to God So that these Socinians are all of a mind as to this matter that whatever they seem to talk of Christ's Faculty of knowing all things and Ability to relieve all our Wants his Knowledge is only by Inspiration as the Knowledge of other Prophets is not an abiding inherent Faculty and does not extend to all things not to the present and particular Wants and Necessities of his Church much less of every particular Christian nay not to the prayers that are made to him and then I confess I see no reason to pray to him and his Ability to help is not an inherent Power to do those things for us which we need and which we pray for but only to intercede for us with God and that not particularly neither but only in general for he does not always know our particular Wants Christian Ears know not how to bear such talk as this which makes a Mediator and Mediatory Kingdom an empty insignificant Name and Title without any other Power but Prayers And that this is the Mind and Belief of our Historian I shall now briefly show and will leave all Men to judge whether this be not to ridicule the Scriptures and Christianity together 1. First then let us consider what the Knowledge of our Saviour is and two or three places will suffice for this purpose for they are very full and express St. Iohn tells of Christ He knew what was in man To which he answers The Knowledge which the Lord Christ had or now in his state of Exaltation hath of the secrets of mens hearts is the pure gift of God and revelation from God and the Divine Word abiding on him that is Divine Inspiration for he means no more by the Divine Word abiding on him this is a plain abuse of the Text and the Reason of it He knew what was in Man is the Reason assigned why he needed no External Information or Testimony of Man needed not that any one should testifie of man for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he himself knew what was in man and knew all men which according to the propriety of words signifies an inherent Personal Knowledge in opposition to any External Manifestation and therefore to Revelation it self for he always knew all men which cannot be done by Revelation which is particular and occasional But this is not our Dispute at present but only to show what this Socinian thinks of it The same he tells us with reference to the last Judgment when Christ shall judge the secrets of men the knowledge Christ hath or at the last Iudgment shall have of the secrets of hearts is purely by Revelation from God and the Divine Word communicated to him This he repeats again in answer to what Christ saith in the Revelations I am he which searcheth the reins and heart The knowledge which the Lord Christ had or hath of any ones secret thoughts is a Revelation made to him by God as it was also sometimes to former Prophets Prophets search the heart which was never said of any Prophet for to search the heart is to look into the heart and see the secrets there not to know them by Revelation that is know the thoughts and propensions of the heart by the Spirit or Inspiration of God in them But the Lord Christ hath a far greater measure of that Spirit than any of the former Prophets ever had that is God reveals more to Christ than ever he did to any former Prophets but it is only Revelation still not an inherent Knowledge In all these places to prove that Christ's knowing what is in man judging the secrets of men searching the reins and heart can signifie no more then that Christ has this Knowledge by Inspiration he proves from the first words of St. Iohn's Revelations The Revelation of Iesus Christ which God gave to him to shew unto his Servants things which must shortly come to pass Which does not signifie that this was a Revelation made to Christ but that Revelation which Christ made for though God is said to give it to him it is to shew unto his Servants that is by the appointment of God Christ shewed this Revelation to Iohn Thus when St. Iohn saw a Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth he says This Text confirms what has been often said namely that the Knowledge which our Lord Christ now hath of Affairs on Earth is partly by means of those ministring Spirits which are sent forth into all the Earth as his eyes to see and relate the state of things for what other reason can they be here called his eyes I shall â—ot now dispute what the meaning of this is it is enough that we know his Opinion that Christ now in Heaven knows nothing of the Affairs on Earth but either by the Revelation of God or the Ministry of Angels and it seems notwithstanding the Divine Word abiding on him God does not reveal all things to him but he is fain to use the Ministry of Angels to be more perfectly acquanted with the Affairs of his Church And thus much for his Knowledge and I confess I desire a Mediator who knows more and in a more perfect manner 2. Let us now consider his Power which the Scripture speaks so magnificently of and which Christ himself calls all Power both in Heaven and Earth and yet our Socinian tells us that this all Power is no other Power but Intercession that Christ has no inherent Power in himself can do nothing at all but intercedes with God to do it He expresly tells us and lays it down as a Principle that Christ's Intercession is inconsistent with an inherent Power in him to hear and help us himself For if he doth hear our Prayers and can and doth by a Power constantly resident in him relieve our Wants to what purpose is he our Mediator with God What can be more evident then that here 7 Hebr. 25. Christ's saving us from the evils we either fear or labour under is ascribed not to his own inherent Power but to his Intercession with the Almighty Thus Christ promises to be always with his Church and a very comfortable Promise it is for we may expect a constant protection from him but our Historian tells us that Christ is neither present with us nor can help us himself bâ—t Christ is in the midst of and is with his People not by an immediate presence as God is but by his most powerful aid and help which